Vince Molarino
I’ve certainly experienced the “let-it-slide” phenomenon over my own career. You see a lot of people working hard on a priority project. Some may see problems and gaps, but do nothing about it. They know things are off track or have a sense that the quality of work is poor. Yet, they just let it go, let things get worse, and hope that someone else fixes it.
Today you read and hear a lot about the need for leaders to demonstrate courage, but it’s often unclear what that actually means in practice. Courage is a pretty nebulous concept, something that we have trouble describing but can recognize when we see it. And I can say that letting things slide is definitely an example of a lack of leadership courage.
Take a few minutes to reflect on your own performance. Are you letting things slide? What’s the price your company might be paying in terms of wasted time, money and resources because you won’t step up and identify obvious problems?
You may think that letting things slide is a good way to get ahead. Keep your head down and everything will be okay. But at some point someone will call you out and then everyone will suffer as a result.